Monocled Alchemist

“That’s Too Bad” / “Like A Rolling Stone” (Golden Rule GR5000) September 1965

The Soup Greens | That’s Too Bad | (Golden Rule) 1965 | This is one of those legendary garage 45s released by an obscure band whose exact details were lost in time.

That was until MTM tracked them down recently and organised The Soup Greens material, including unreleased acetates, to be re-issued on Misty Lane Records, who operate out of Italy. (This is exactly what I did with The Roosters by the way, only I linked those guys up with Break-A-Way Records from Germany).

Anyway, back to The Soup Greens. It turns out that they were a three piece based in Brooklyn, New York. For so long they had been unknowns and only came to worldwide acclaim via Pebbles Vol 1. ’Like A Rolling Stone’ was the opener on side one of that compilation and many thousands of people would finally be aware of The Soup Greens and hear their teenage garage assault on Bob Dylan’s song.

The Soup Greens | That’s Too Bad | (Golden Rule) 1965

This was in fact the B-Side of the only Soup Greens 45, released during late Summer in 1965. According to Dave Eagle, the flip ’That’s Too Bad’ was their chosen side for fame for fortune but despite a mention in Billboard and Cashbox trade journals as well as a handful of plays on local New York radio, it appears that few copies of the record sold and the boys would remain in obscurity.

line-up:
Lenny Matlin (Farfisa)
Steve Tennenbaum (drums)
Dave Eagle (guitar/lead vocals)

About the record:

Dave Eagle: We were in the basement of Lenny’s house on Neptune Ave. in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn. Steve lived close by on Brighton 3rd St. I lived on Staten Island, and used my father’s new green 1965 Buick LeSabre with power windows and a giant trunk good for carrying my Fender Super Reverb.

I was playing a 1960 Gretsch Firebird-red, Steve played silver sparkle Gretsch drums, and Lenny played a Farfisa Combo Compact, through an Ampeg Bass Amp.

We used Shure mics, I think M57s. Anyway, it was a Saturday afternoon and we needed a B-side for “That’s Too Bad”. It came to me that we could do Dylan as well or better than any band out there, who were all doing folk-rock.

NO SOUL at all! We immediately ripped into “Like A Rolling Stone” Soup Green’s style, loved it, and that was that, except for recording it. The masters were done at Bell Sound in NYC, the studio where the Stones also had done masters.

We did it in one take, with overdubs. I think we jumped around for a while after the session, or had some beers, or something. We spent time in the Village in those days, having played at Trude Heller’s and the Night Owl; including one night with the Blues Magoos.